ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
PERSUASIVE WRITING RUBRIC

Meaning: the extent to which the writing exhibits sound understanding, analysis, and explanation, of the writing task and text(s)

· convey an accurate and in-depth understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose for the writing task
· offer insightful and thorough analysis and explanation in support of the argument or position

· convey an accurate and complete understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose for the writing task
· offer clear and explicit analysis and explanation in support of the argument or position

· convey an accurate although somewhat basic understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose for the writing task
· offer partial analysis and explanation in support of the argument or position

· convey a partly accurate understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose of the writing task
· offer limited analysis or superficial explanation that only partially support the argument or position

· convey a confused or largely inaccurate understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose for the writing task
· offer unclear analysis or unwarranted explanations that fail to support the argument or position

· provide no evidence of understanding the writing task or topic
· make incoherent explanations that do not support the argument or position

Development: the extent to which ideas are elaborated using specific and relevant details and/or evidence to support the thesis

· support the position clearly and fully with arguments that effectively integrate and elaborate on specific ideas and textual evidence from a variety of sources
· effectively anticipate and convincingly refute opposing view points

· support the position clearly and consistently with arguments that incorporate and explain ideas and specific textual evidence from a variety of sources
· anticipate and somewhat convincingly refute opposing viewpoints

· support the position with arguments that use ideas and relevant textual evidence from a variety of sources
· anticipate and attempt to refute opposing viewpoints at a basic level

· support the position partially, using some ideas and textual evidence but without much elaboration or from limited sources
· partially anticipate and with a limited or confused attempt to refute opposing viewpoints but

· attempt to support the position, but textual ideas and evidence is vague, repetitive, or unjustified
· allude to opposing viewpoints but make no attempt to refute them

· completely lack development and do not include textual evidence
· make no attempt to anticipate or refute opposing viewpoints

Organization: the extent to which the writing establishes a clear thesis and maintains direction, focus, and coherence

· skillfully establish and maintain consistent focus on a clear and compelling thesis
· exhibit logical and coherent structure with claims, evidence and interpretations that convincingly support the thesis
· make skillful use of transition words and phrases

· effectively establish and maintain consistent focus on a clear thesis
· exhibit a logical sequence of claims, evidence, and interpretations to support the thesis
· make effective use of transition words and phrases

· establish and maintain focus on a clear thesis
· exhibit a logical sequence of claims, evidence, and interpretations but ideas within paragraphs may be inconsistently organized
· make some attempt to use basic transition words and phrases

· establish but fail to consistently maintain focus on a basic thesis
· exhibit a basic structure but lack the coherence of consistent claims, evidence, and interpretations
· make an inconsistent attempt to use some basic transition words or phrases

· establish a confused or irrelevant thesis and fail to maintain focus
· exhibit an attempt to organize ideas into a beginning, middle, and end, but lack coherence
· make little attempt to use transition words and phrases

· fail to include a thesis or maintain focus
· complete lack of organization and coherence
· make no attempt to use transition words or phrases

Language: the extent to which the writing reveals an awareness of audience and purpose through word choice and sentence variety

· are stylistically sophisticated, using language that is precise and engaging, with a notable sense of voice and awareness of audience and purpose
· effectively incorporate a range of varied sentence patterns to reveal syntactic fluency

· use language that is fluent and original, with evident awareness of audience and purpose
· incorporate varied sentence patterns that reveal an awareness of different syntactic structures

· use appropriate language, with some awareness of audience and purpose
· make some attempt to include different sentence patterns but with awkward or uneven success

· rely on basic vocabulary, with little awareness of audience or purpose
· reveal a limited awareness of how to vary sentence patterns and rely on a limited range syntactic structures

· use language that is imprecise or unsuitable for the audience or purpose
· reveal a confused understanding of how to write in complete sentences and little or no ability to vary sentence patterns

· use language that is incoherent or inappropriate
· include a preponderance of sentence fragments and run-ons that significantly hinder comprehension

Conventions: the extent to which the writing exhibits conventional spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, capitalization, and grammar

· demonstrate control of the conventions with essentially no errors, even with sophisticated language

· demonstrate control of the conventions, exhibiting occasional errors only when using sophisticated language (e.g., punctuation of complex sentences)